This study examined the implementation of a specialized
domestic violence unit within the San Diego County Sheriff's
Department to determine whether the creation of the new unit would
lead to increased and improved reporting, and more filings for
prosecution. In order to evaluate the implementation of the
specialized domestic violence unit, the researchers conducted the
following tasks: (1) They surveyed field deputies to assess their
level of knowledge about domestic violence laws a... (more info)

This study examined the implementation of a specialized
domestic violence unit within the San Diego County Sheriff's
Department to determine whether the creation of the new unit would
lead to increased and improved reporting, and more filings for
prosecution. In order to evaluate the implementation of the
specialized domestic violence unit, the researchers conducted the
following tasks: (1) They surveyed field deputies to assess their
level of knowledge about domestic violence laws and adherence to the
countywide domestic violence protocol. (2) They studied a sample from
the case tracking system that reported cases of domestic violence
handled by the domestic violence unit to determine changes in
procedures compared to an earlier case tracking study with no
specialized unit. (3) They interviewed victims of domestic violence by
phone to explore the responsiveness of the field deputies and the unit
detectives to the needs of the victims. Part 1 (Deputy Survey Data)
contains data on unit detectives' knowledge about the laws concerning
domestic violence. Information includes whether or not the person
considered the primary aggressor was the person who committed the
first act of aggression, if a law enforcement officer could decide
whether or not to complete a domestic violence supplemental report,
whether an arrest should be made if there was reasonable cause to
believe that a misdemeanor offense had been committed, and whether the
decision to prosecute a suspect lay within the discretion of the
district or city attorney. Demographic variables include deputy's
years of education and law enforcement experience. Part 2 (Case
Tracking Data) includes demographic variables such as race and sex of
the victim and the suspect, and the relationship between the victim
and the suspect. Other information was collected on whether the victim
and the suspect used alcohol and drugs prior to or during the
incident, if the victim was pregnant, if children were present during
the incident, highest charge on the incident report, if the reporting
call was made at the same place the incident occurred, suspect actions
described on the report, if a gun, knife, physical force, or verbal
abuse was used in the incident, if the victim or the suspect was
injured, and if medical treatment was provided to the victim. Data
were also gathered on whether the suspect was arrested or booked, how
the investigating officer decided whether to request that the
prosecutor file charges, type of evidence collected, if a victim or
witness statement was collected, if the victim had a restraining
order, prior history of domestic violence, if the victim was provided
with information on domestic violence law, hotline, shelter,
transportation, and medical treatment, highest arrest charge, number
of arrests for any drug charges, weapon charges, domestic violence
charges, or other charges, case disposition, number of convictions for
the charges, and number of prior arrests and convictions. Part 3
(Victim Survey Data) includes demographic variables such as victim's
gender and race. Other variables include how much time the deputy
spent at the scene when s/he responded to the call, number of deputies
the victim interacted with at the scene, number of deputies at the
scene that were male or female, if the victim used any of the
information the deputy provided, if the victim used referral
information for counseling, legal, shelter, and other services, how
helpful the victim found the information, and the victim's rating of
the performance of the deputy.

Study Description

Citation

Pennell, Susan, and Cynthia Burke. EVALUATION OF A CENTRALIZED RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BY THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE UNIT, 1998-1999. ICPSR version. San Diego, CA: San Diego Association of Governments, Criminal Justice Research Division [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2002. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03488.v1

Universe:
Domestic violence cases in San Diego County entered into
the case tracking system from July 26 to September 11, 1999.

Data Types:
administrative records data, and survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) This data collection is a follow-up of a previous
study conducted by the principal investigators in 1996. Users can
refer to the final report for information on the 1996 study. (2) The
user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided by
ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format
was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using
PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on
how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR
Web site.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
This study examined the implementation of a
specialized domestic violence unit within the San Diego County
Sheriff's Department to determine whether creation of the new unit
would lead to increased and improved reporting, and more filings for
prosecution. The study was conducted by the San Diego Association of
Governments (SANDAG), and supported by the National Institute of
Justice (NIJ). The researchers tried to answer these questions: (1)
Was the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Domestic Violence Unit
implemented as stated in the project proposal? (2) What features of
the project describe specialization? (3) What types of training are
provided to investigators in a specialized domestic violence unit? (4)
How effective is a specialized approach in impacting the response of
field deputies who are the first responders to domestic violence
calls? (5) What are the nature and scope of coordination and
collaboration with other agencies providing services in the domestic
violence area?

Study Design:
In order to evaluate the implementation of the
specialized domestic violence unit, the researchers conducted the
following tasks: (1) They surveyed field deputies to assess their
level of knowledge about domestic violence laws and adherence to the
countywide domestic violence protocol. (2) They studied a sample from
the case tracking system that reported cases of domestic violence
handled by the domestic violence unit to determine changes in
procedures compared to an earlier case tracking study when there was
no specialized unit. (3) They interviewed victims of domestic violence
by phone to explore the responsiveness of the field deputies and the
unit detectives to the needs of the victims. Prior to being contacted
by the researchers, unit staff would first call the victims to explain
the purpose and nature of the interviews. Detectives were provided
with a script to use that assured the victims that their participation
was voluntary, their information would be considered confidential, and
that their willingness to participate would not affect their
case. When researchers contacted the victim, they identified
themselves as such, reminded the victim that he or she had previously
agreed to be interviewed, and reminded the victim of the purpose of the
interview. Researchers again assessed victim privacy, sense of safety,
and appropriateness of the time. Two female researchers conducted all
46 interviews. To allow time for the detectives to follow up with the
victims, the victims were contacted two weeks following the date of
the incident.

Description of Variables:
Part 1 (Deputy Survey Data) contains data on unit
detectives' knowledge about the laws concerning domestic
violence. Information includes whether or not the person considered
the primary aggressor was the person who committed the first act of
aggression, if a law enforcement officer could decide whether or not
to complete a domestic violence supplemental report, whether an arrest
should be made if there was reasonable cause to believe that a
misdemeanor offense had been committed, and whether the decision to
prosecute a suspect lay within the discretion of the district or city
attorney. Demographic variables include deputy's years of education
and law enforcement experience. Part 2 (Case Tracking Data) includes
demographic variables such as race and sex of the victim and the
suspect, and the relationship between the victim and the
suspect. Other information was collected on whether the victim and the
suspect used alcohol and drugs prior to or during the incident, if the
victim was pregnant, if children were present during the incident,
highest charge on the incident report, if the reporting call was made
at the same place the incident occurred, suspect actions described on
the report, if a gun, knife, physical force, or verbal abuse was used
in the incident, if the victim or the suspect was injured, and if
medical treatment was provided to the victim. Data were also gathered
on whether the suspect was arrested or booked, how the investigating
officer decided whether to request that the prosecutor file charges,
type of evidence collected, if a victim or witness statement was
collected, if the victim had a restraining order, prior history of
domestic violence, if the victim was provided with information on
domestic violence law, hotline, shelter, transportation, and medical
treatment, highest arrest charge, number of arrests for any drug
charges, weapon charges, domestic violence charges, or other charges,
case disposition, number of convictions for the charges, and number of
prior arrests and convictions. Part 3 (Victim Survey Data) includes
demographic variables such as victim's gender and race. Other
variables include how much time the deputy spent at the scene when
s/he responded to the call, number of deputies the victim interacted
with at the scene, number of deputies at the scene that were male or
female, if the victim used any of the information the deputy provided,
if the victim used referral information for counseling, legal,
shelter, and other services, how helpful the victim found the
information, and the victim's rating of the performance of the
deputy.

Response Rates:
Part 1 and 2: Not applicable. Part 3: 65
percent.

Presence of Common Scales:
Several Likert-type scales were used.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Created online analysis version with question text.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2002-12-09

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CB3488.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.